Gears of War was a shooter on the Xbox 360. That’s what made it famous, and that is where it made its money. Lots of money. Shooters do well with the 360 crowd. So then, how is Gears of War 2 different from its big brother? Is it a dramatic critique of the human soul, crafted with a heart-wrenching story and well-rounded characters? Of course not! It’s a shooter on the Xbox 360. You’re going to shoot some aliens, chainsaw some aliens, punch some aliens and then talk about shooting some aliens. Only this time, you get more weapons!

Gears of War 2 has you playing in the shoes of the grizzled soldier Marcus Fenix. Marcus is a fighter for the Coalition of Ordered Governments. COG sends soldiers (Gears) to fight Locusts, the previously mentioned aliens that seemingly solely exist to kill all the protagonists. The game picks up soon after the original ended with the goal remaining largely the same: Kill the Locust. That is about as complex as the story gets. A giant “What the heck are you doing? Play some multiplayer already!” sign is mysteriously absent.

For the vast minority of people playing this game for the single player, the story is nothing special. You shoot some guys then take cover and shoot some more guys. The characters shortly discuss where there are some more guys and then you go shoot those guys. The Locust and Gears all look the same and anyone that has a name and a face only shows up at all so you get to play as them in multiplayer. A tragic romance story comes out of nowhere and is ultimately solved by shooting some guys. The story is pretty disjointed, forcing Marcus and his crew to travel all over the place to shoot some guys. You’ll go to a destroyed city, underground caves, a snowy mountain, a lake, a laboratory, and even inside a giant worm. It feels as though the player is brought to these places only because the programmers worked so hard on them. The game itself rarely goes further at explaining anything than “Shoot these guys!” When you really think about, the story is only there to add some backstory to the multiplayer.

Now then: multiplayer. Epic Games loves them some multiplayer. This game will really only be worth the money you paid for it if you have some friends (or Xbox Live players) to pal around with. Even if you don’t, Epic is remarkably good at programming bots, and the AI will keep you on your toes in offline multiplayer. Gears of War 2 expands on the original in many ways in terms of game modes and rules. You have the choice of Horde, Warzone, Execution, Guardian, Annex, King of the Hill, Submission and Wingman.

Warzone and Execution are your basic deathmatch games with the only difference being if you can finish someone off from long range. Guardian is pretty much the same but with one random person playing the general who must be killed to stop respawns. King of the Hill has you guarding a circle of territory while Annex has it moving around the stage. Submission rounds out your traditional variety of modes with Capture the Flag rules. Wingman is new to this game and is a favorite among players. It places five teams of two against each other in a battle to the death. It is tense, chaotic and a blast to play. Multiplayer is pretty well-balanced, and bugs are routinely fixed. You won’t have trouble finding a game, but don’t expect to be grouped according to skill level. The game claims to adjust teams according to skill, but it is very possible that a group of novices will fight a team of hardened veterans.

Horde mode is also new to the party and pushes your use of teamwork to the max. You and four buddies will fend off wave after wave of enemies using whatever guns and ammo are lying around. Every wave is harder than the last and every tenth wave improves the Locusts’ health, accuracy, or damage. This mode is my personal favorite as it is nice to see a game encouraging teamwork amongst players against the AI rather than other players. After all, all gamers hate the jerk that is the CPU and there’s no harm in using exploits on the AI. Everybody wins here!

To sum it all up, Gears of War 2 is NOT a game you play for a ground-breaking story and emotionally driven characters. It is a game you play with a group of your buddies, with high-fives and fist bumps being mandatory. It oozes manliness and is packed with muscular men killing muscular aliens in a manly fashion. The campaign is there if you want it, but multiplayer is waiting for your inevitable desire to play with others. Truth be told, Epic Games would probably agree. You can’t sell map packs for the single player after all. What? They did? You win this round, Epic Games.